Allied Bakeries Case Study - OPERATION & MAINTENANCE

The safe operation of boilers - who's responsible?

Optimizing Energy Usage in Multi-Fuel Boilers

BG03 - Blowdown Systems

Guidance for Industrial Steam Boilers

Blowdown Systems, Guidance for Industrial Steam Boilers (Ref:BG03) is a guidance document intended to provide advice to designers, specifiers, manufacturers, installers and those responsible for the management and operation of steam plant as well as Competent Persons (CP). It is applicable to both new and existing installations of steam boilers and addresses the following issues:

The safe discharge of blowdown from boilers;

The safe use and operation of blowdown vessels;

The safe use and operation of blowdown pits;

Proper maintenance and inspection of blowdown vessels and pits including requirements for regular inspection by a Competent Person in accordance with the Written Sheme of Examination (WSE)

Keeping the lights on or "I wouldn't start from here"

A personal assessment by Kenneth Fergusson, Honorary Vice President of the Combustion Engineering Association.

In London, 23rd January 2017 dawned windless, foggy and frosty. 100 flights were cancelled at Heathrow. The BBC reported that the conditions were widespread across the country. Looking at the weather map, I remembered an article written back in November 2003, when major UK wind generation capacity was only an aspiration, but RWE in Germany already had 13GW in service.

In 2001, I retired after four years as Chief Executive of the Coal Authority. I was invited to become President of the Combustion Engineering Association, a role which I relished for four years. During that time, UK energy policy was being reformulated and for the first year, I acted as a consultant to DTI on the subject of "clean coal" for which carbon capture and storage (CCS) was prerequisite and the appropriate and the appropriate generation technologies were "ultra-supercritical"(USC) or "Integrated gasification combined cycle"(IGCC).

In 2009 I was invited to write an article on UCG for "Modern Power Systems" for which I prepared a comparison of generation cost or offshore wind, nuclear, USC and IGCC, gas CCGT and UCG all the fossil fuel cases included 90+% CCS.

4 Key Measurements For Optimal Boiler Control

The purpose of boiler control is to achieve safe operation, reliability and optimised performance with respect to load change response, fuel cost and emissions.

In most control applications, repeatability or measurement is more important than absolute accuracy. Accuracy can be adjusted for software, but erratic readings cannot.

Drum level is critical for safety and reliability. Inaccurate drum level control can result in safety issue and equipment damage. High levels can cause water carryover that lowers heat transfer efficiency and possibly damages downstream equipment such as steam turbines.

Byworth Boilers - Case Studies

Jura, in a world of it's own - Find out more about Byworths journey to this famous distillery.

One road, one distillery, one pub, one shop and one community; but with over 5000 deer, Jura is an island with a unique spirit.The Isle of Jura, nestled off the West Coast of Scotland is only 60 miles from Glasgow but takes a wee while to get there. A land where myths, legends, superstition and the craft of whisky making has been handed down from generation to generation.Byworth went to the Isle of Jura to meet with Andy Jardine to get his perspective on business with Byworth; the benefits of better boiler life; improved efficiency; uptime and improved customer satisfaction.

Watch our video where Animal Feeds company, GLW Feeds talk about the benefits of more efficient boilers and technology in the plant...Byworth Boilers went to visit GLW Feeds at their site in Leicestershire to meet with John Kettle and get his perspective on business with Byworth and the Yorkshireman steam boiler.

In this video we learn more about the Yorkshireman steam boiler and how this has saved GLW Feeds nearly 25% on their running costs from switching from a coal fired boiler to a new state of art gas fired boiler.

Birmingham Heartlands Hospital

From a serious boiler explosion in Hong Kong to a fact finding and training visit to the UK, The CEA's Chairman Derry Carr with Cochran's David Branch was involved with helping the authorities in Hong Kong investigate a serious boiler explosion.

Then it was on to visit a very well run and organised NHS Estates department at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. Heartlands have been a member of the CEA fro several years, attending conference workshops and other initiatives such as the MCPD, Technical Boilerhouse Risk Assessment, BOAS and I-GAS.

Spreading the CEA message to Hong Kong

During the summer of 2016 Cochran were asked to provide independent advice and guidance following a reportable accident in Hong Kong. To provide this independent advice Cochran asked Derry Carr (CEA Chairman) to attend site and investigate.

The Investigation highlighted a number of areas where systems and operation could be improved. As a result, a number of initiatives have been put in place with the Hong Kong government Electrical & Mechanical Service Department.

In 2017 it is planned for Derry to carry out further Technical Risk Assessment training to engineers locally in Hong Kong, along with Bill Higgins(Cochran Training manager) providing International Boiler Operation Accreditation Scheme training (I-BOAS) for the operators and maintainers.

A leading UK manufacturer Allied Bakeries commissioned MCL Energy to Operate & Maintain their Stevenage site. Allied Bakeries produce the Kingsmill™ bread, one of the UK’s Top 10 grocery brands. Sub-brands Great Everyday White, 50/50, Tasty Wholemeal and Crusts Away are all manufactured at the site.

The safe operation of boilers - who's responsible?

Recently, our Chairman - Derry Carr - has had an article published in Plant & Works Engineering Magazine:

If you are reading this, then the likelihood is you're an engineer with responsibility of the boiler plant in your organisation. Now that could be a factory, a hospital, a chemical plant, a prison or in fact anywhere with a boiler.

So, is the boiler plant your responsibility? Yes; you say, it is my responsibility.

The fact is, the over-riding responsibility for the safe operation of the boilers within your organisation sits with the head of your organisation. It may be the MD or the CEO or some other such title but for this exercise we will call him/her the MD. The chances are, they're not from an engineering background and possibly don't even know where the boilerhouse is, but they cannot get away from it, in law, they are responsible.

Steam header pressure controllers can be properly tuned for fast response, and use feedforward signals and half decouplers to minimize disruptions in a header and between headers from large changes in steam usage and generation by production units.

We can use boilers running on waste fuel to take all the swings in the plant steam demand within minutes. The starting point is good flow measurements and computations on a mass flow basis.

Coriolis flowmeters are great in terms of providing the most accurate mass flow measurement with the greatest rangeability, as well as density measurement with incredible precision. However, for solid fuels, very large lines or other applications where Coriolis flowmeters are not practical, strategies can provide the missing information as long as the flow measurements are relatively repeatable.